Echoing Voices from Within: A Rhodes Must Fall Exhibition

The Centre for African Studies (CAS) Gallery hosted an ‘Echoing Voices from Within’ exhibition from 9 March 2016 – 9 May 2016. The exhibition was primarily a moment of reflection and commemoration of a movement that impacted significantly on UCT and potentially other universities forever. More than an exhibition, it was a thorough archive and a record produced by the Rhodes Must Fall movement. It was a body of work that drew its content from photographs, videos, banners and artefacts from a climactic year of activism. Many of the photographs and videos were taken by the students themselves who also assembled a significant and important archive of this moment in history. It was in itself a record of the events that began on 9 March 2015.

The exhibition comprised about 75 photographs, videos, posters and relevant artefacts that captured the essence and the evolving story of a dramatic year in student protest. Included in the exhibition was a wall curated by CAS called ‘Contested Legacies’ where Rhodes, Jameson and other uncomfortable symbols and their presences were contextualised and interrogated. ‘Echoing Voices from Within’ formed part of a larger theme of student uprising the CAS gallery explored and commemorated.

During the exhibition there were walkabouts, seminars and other activities related to the exhibition and the Rhodes Must Fall moment.

In the build up to the opening the programme began with a revisit of significant of sites where Rhodes Must Fall events happened on UCT campus.